“Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it.” We’re spending our Rewind Christmas in Gotham, with Tim Burton’s eccentric 1992 comic book sequel Batman Returns.

An abandoned aristocratic child, born with unfortunate physical deformities, grows up in the sewers below the city streets, eventually waging a circus-centric war on the populace at the big tree-lighting ceremony some three decades later. The guest of honour at that event, business magnate Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), is kidnapped, coming face-to-face with The Penguin (Danny DeVito). The fast-thinking Shreck concocts a plan - orchestrate Penguin’s reemergence into polite society, and use him to depose and replace the incumbent mayor for his own greedy ends. Caught up in these machinations is mild-mannered executive assistant Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer), seemingly murdered for learning too much, who finds herself resurrected as a slinky, whip-wielding feline agent of mayhem and revenge. Also Batman (Michael Keaton) is there.

After the pop culture phenomenon of his 1989 original, Tim Burton kept corporate paymasters Warner Bros. waiting, establishing himself as the inky, gothy outcast du jour with passion project Edward Scissorhands. When he finally returned to the franchise, he amped up the weirdness as the German Expressionism-meets-Gothic Noir aesthetic of the city reached new heights of abstraction, matched by a fevered, weird psychosexuality. But, is it Batman? Join Gali, Devlin, Patrick and Matt under the abandoned zoo for a festive feast of gadgets, goo, and grotesquerie.

Pick up merchandise based on this episode’s artwork here!

If you have a film you’d like the gang to tackle, send us an email at rewindmoviepodcast@gmail.com. For introductions, essays, playlists, and the full back catalogue of episodes and specials, find us at rewindmoviecast.com.

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